NEW YORK: The U.N. Security Council added its voice Monday to calls for Hamas and Israel to implement a permanent cease-fire deal and hostage release in Gaza.
“Colleagues, today we voted for peace,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told council members following the 14-0 vote in favor of a U.S.-drafted resolution supporting the cease-fire proposal. Russia abstained.
She said the plan is the best and only way to bring about a durable end to the 8-month-old war, which began with Hamas’ terror attack inside Israel on October 7.
“There is an opportunity to chart a different course,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “Hamas must take it.”
Russia questioned whether Israel has indeed signed up to it and said there have not been enough details about the cease-fire proposal for the council to give its blessing.
“The Security Council should not sign up to agreements with vague parameters,” Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia said.
The resolution seeks to add pressure on Hamas while urging both Hamas and Israel to fully implement the cease-fire deal “without delay and without condition.” It is also the first time the 15-nation council has called for a “permanent” end to the hostilities.
Israel’s ambassador, Gilad Erdan, was present for the vote but did not stay to deliver his government’s statement. Instead, political coordinator Reut Shapir Ben-Naftaly spoke without mentioning the resolution’s adoption or Israel’s support for the proposal. She urged the international community to put pressure on Hamas.
“It is Hamas that is preventing this war from ending. Hamas and Hamas alone,” she said.
The Reuters news agency reported that following the vote, Hamas issued a statement welcoming that the council has “affirmed a permanent cease-fire in Gaza” and indicating a willingness to engage in indirect negotiations over implementing the principles “that are consistent with the demands of our people and resistance.”
(VOA)
Comment